The Firmata sketch is located here: http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Interfacing/Firmata but the download link is broken so I had to copy/paste from the CVS site. Only later did I find that Firmata is already located in a folder in the Arduino IDE (I'm on WinXP).

I've had no luck getting the Pyduino library and example to work. PySerial can connect to the Arduino's serial port without errors, but any attempt at one- or two-way communication (for example, getting the firmata version number stored in the sketch on the arduino) produces nothing. Other serial communication to my board using other sketches works fine.

Hi, I wrote pyduino, so this is almost certainly my fault Can you post the python you were using (if it isn't just the example), and any errors you're getting. I've not got my arduino with me for a few days, but last time I used it I had it working fine. One possibility is that firmata is now working at the 115200 bitrate - I need to check properly, but it's either happened or happening soon. I'm so behind with my arduino news If thats the problem you could try changing line 51 of pyduino.py from

The firmata sketch uploads fine, the rx/tx lights blink while it runs, and I don't get any errors in Python, but nothing else happens. I know it's not a communication issue; I have sent and received serial data from my Arduino in several other instances. PySerial and the FTDI drivers are installed (I'm on Python 2.5). Any idea as to what's going wrong? Thanks again for your help.

dylpkls91: are you using a Diecimila? orphans: have you tested pyduino on a Diecimila?

The auto-reset feature of the Diecimila means that you might need to pause 2 seconds or so after opening the serial port but before sending any data over it. That gives the bootloader on the Diecimila a chance to time out and start the firmata sketch. Otherwise, the first few bytes sent by pyduino will go to the bootloader, not firmata.

Well, I just added a sleep of two seconds right after pyduino initializes the serial connection, but nothing changed in the behavior of my arduino. I even fixed the mistake in my test code where I forgot to call board.iterate() before writing to the pin, but that didn't change anything either.

Mellis: No I hadn't tested with a Diecimila - there was a post on the mailing list saying that Firmata worked better with the automatic reset, but I think that sending a couple of bytes to get the version straight after initializing the connection could be a problem. But not this problem evidently - I think it might be a bug on top of a bug I'll stick a sleep in a new version once I know what's causing this.

dylpkls91: Ok, could you try running this - it's about as basic as it can get.

You should see the status LED strobe a pattern at the start (giving the major and minor version of firmata). Then there should be another quick blip or two from the status pin, and you should get a version number back. If this works then then serial communication with firmata is OK, and it's probably something in my digital code which is a little sketchy If you could try this at both bitrates it'd be much appreciated too.

Also if none of that works could you give it a go using rev 1.3 of firmata. I think there's a chance that the serial initiation code has gone amiss in the change to using firmata as a library (I can't find it in the 0.10 arduino code anyway...)

Sorry I can't debug this myself at the moment, and cheers for looking into it.Joe

Thank you both again for your help, but I regret to say that pyduino still isn't working.

Here's what I was able to find out:

The firmata included in Arduino 0010 does compile for me, whereas revision 1.3 doesn't.

Changing the baudrate in pyduino.py doesn't affect my results (I'm using the included firmata, which uploads w/o errors). I tried rates of 9600, 57600, and 115200.

I was finally able to get a two-value tuple from the get_firmata_version() function, by appending "self.iterate()" to __init__ in pyduino.py's Arduino class.

The above fix only works when pyduino.py sleeps for 6 or more seconds after beginning the serial connection. ("import time; time.sleep(6)")

The code I posted in an earlier post, to just turn on the LED at digital pin 13, still doesn't work, although "a.digital[13].get_active()" returns 1 (which must mean that the pin was successfully set active).

Right, I think that I almost know what's going on now...maybeThe iterate and sleep should definitely be in __init__ - that's my fault. The iterate after get_firmata_version() grabs the bytes sending the version, everything I've done before has been looping over iterate so I didn't notice.I think that the problem setting the digital pin is in the 0010 version of firmata, although it does compile. I'm going to take a guess that the compile errors in rev 1.3 are to do with port_to_input_PGM not being found. If so try putting

#include <pins_arduino.h> after the EEPROM include in firmata. I think it should compile then and (hopefully) work with 57600 bitrate. If it compiles and doesn't work then we're back to it being my fault. If it doesn't compile then can you post up the errors - I remember I had to do a little tweaking to get 1.30 to compile with 0010 (probably just the include), but I thought it was my fault botching the new versions of everything.CheersJoe

You might want to try the version of Firmata in the processing-arduino library from the Interfacing w/ Processing page on the playground. That's the one I've been using (I created the Processing library), and I believe it's the most recent stable version.

BTW, dylpkls91: when you upload a sketch (e.g. led blink), do you have to wait about 6 seconds or so after uploading it before it starts running? You may have gotten a Diecimila that was accidently burned with the NG bootloader, which works fine, but has a longer initial delay (so requires a longer sleep in the pyduino code).

I just tried Firmata 1.30, applying orphans' suggestion of including pins_arduino.h. At first, it didn't compile and I got the same error, but it worked after I poked around and changed the method calls in lines 164 and 165 of Firmata from "port_to_input" to "port_to_input_PGM".

I'm using pyduino.py modified in the following ways: I added a six-second sleep and self.iterate() to __init__, and set the baudrate to 57600, which matches the speed set in Firmata's setup() function.

But I'm still at the same point: Python can connect to the board via serial, pin 13 verifies being set active, I can get the version number, but any attempt to write a 1 to the pin does nothing. The rx light flickers, but that's it.

Mellis: Thanks, I'll try using that Firmata and let you know how it goes. No, when I upload a regular sketch (like the hello world led test) the board starts the program only a couple seconds after the transfer is complete. I put a six-second sleep in pyduino.py so that no data would be sent until after Firmata does its initial pin13-version-blink thing. Thank goodness my Arduino doesn't suffer from bootloader issues!

Thank you both again for all your help. It just goes to show that open-source communities have more than one advantage over the big guys.

Brilliant! Over the next couple of days I'll put up a new version of Pyduino which has your changes in, and contains the working firmware so we don't have this problem again. Thanks for all of your help dylpkls91 and mellis.Joe